Okay, after a 5 1/2 hour drive, I met the doctor today. I could not have felt more comfortable. He brought us into his office and explained the problems and the fixes. He had a model of a heart, a tissue valve, and the Dacron tube they use to replace aortas with aneurysms. He explained everything…
We are up early and will be out the door by 7am. My boyfriend and I are headed to the city by the bay for our appointment with my surgeon. I slept amazingly well last night (aided by half of a benadryl and a long workout yesterday – yes I behaved for the most part).…
In 49 hours we will be in San Francisco to meet with my surgeon. Since I learned that I would need surgery to at least repair the ascending and partially descending thoracic aortic aneurysm (and though we hope a valve replacement will be unnecessary, that is also a possibility), it has been constantly on my…
Just a brief post to update the reader regarding what I learned today. Evidently prosthetic aortas (the tube they will use to replace my aorta) and sailcloth are essentially the same material: Polyethylene terephthalate (sometimes written poly(ethylene terephthalate)), commonly abbreviated PET, PETE (brand name=Dacron). Wikipedia (I know) describes Dacron: “is a thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester…
Now that we believe we have found the right surgeon, we know the risks of having surgery versus putting it off, and keeping in mind that my daughter, son-in-law, and grandson (who will be 3) plan to visit for Christmas, we have begun to talk about time frames for surgery. I need plenty of time…
In 17 days, we have an appointment with our second candidate to perform my cardio-thoracic surgery. After our first experience, I was a bit wary and wanted to do as much research as possible. So I hit the internet. Amazingly, I found that our potential surgeon has more than six YouTube videos. These are educational videos created…
A sideways glance. A concerned smile. Gentle questions about my well-being. Subtle distancing. These are some of the reactions I have experienced lately. People appear to be watching me more closely (no, it is not my paranoia). I have found that others’ discomfort actually creates some discomfort for me. I asked my boyfriend about this…
I think that I have always known that life offers us opportunities to learn. I know that this belief became stronger as I studied psychology in college and graduate school. And I am certain that over the past 12 years, this belief has become even stronger and it has become apparent that the opportunities to…
No, I am not talking about the right husband, wife, life partner, etc. However, it is still a matter of the heart. Heart surgeons that is. I met with my first potential heart surgeon today. We waited for over an hour before meeting with his nurse practitioner (who was reasonably nice). She gathered history and…
When my cardiologist said that we should start to meet with surgeons, I expected to wait a few months to get an appointment. During that time I figured I would set aside some of my worries and just sort of live my life. However, it appears that the first surgeon with whom I will meet…
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